Category Archives: Sky for Silent Wings

This post will only be up for the last weekend of January 2016. Congratulations if you managed to read it. The poems are what I intend to read at the Central Library in Cape Town to as yet an unknown number of people (perhaps just the librarian and myself!). If you like any of the poems at all, it would be nice to get some feedback. The reading is at 2pm South African time.

Thanks to all my friends who are in various parts of the world and cannot attend.

UPDATE. 4 February 2016.

I’ve deleted the file. But for those who missed the reading or would like to read the said poems, you may contact me here and I’ll gladly share with you.

Thanks to all those who made the effort to listen to my poetry. I had fun and met some new friends. I’m not gonna lie, I like reading to an audience. Something I really miss since I moved to South Africa. It doesn’t matter whether it is at a formal venue or just with a group of friends. I remember those crazy days back at university with people I may not always agree with but who were nonetheless open to hearing what I had to say. Then years later at various poetry reading venues – small smokey pubs, or at launches and some academic gathering. Or a handful of friends who manage to find time despite work commitments.

I guess I can come out of my shell and look around here where I am now. Making new connections is never easy, but that’s the only way one keeps growing.

Hmmm. I’m not drunk. Just blabbering like I had a few bottles. Sleep deprivation does pretty much the same thing to me. 🙂

A piece of mine has been included in an anthology to be launched on 31 January 2015 in Manila. The book is called FAST FOOD FICTION DELIVERY. The piece also forms part of an unpublished manuscript.
I’ve posted an MP3 file of my reading, since I won’t be able to attend the launch. My teleporter is far from reliable – the last time I tried to use it I ended up in a cupboard of a next door neighbour with vicious dogs. 😛HERE IS THE LINK TO THE SOUNDCLOUD PAGE.

Jacana Media has generously made available the three poems up for the 2014 Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award. HERE is the link. My poem, “Illegal, Undocumented,” is part of my manuscript SKY FOR SILENT WINGS (or OSAMA, YOU ARE NOW OPEN COUNTRY… or THE MAN WHO WISHED HE WAS LEGO… yup, I still haven’t made up my mind which title to use, and neither has my fictitious publisher decided to accept it or not… maybe I should dream of another publisher?).

Checkers is one of the big supermarket chains here in SA. They must have to deal with massive numbers of people who come to their premises – mainly to do their shopping, one hopes. Security, a word that means the opposite in some (most?) cases, has become a major concern to most businesses in this country, particularly as the holiday season approaches. The rise of armed robberies at shopping malls is a disturbing reality that shoppers here now face. In fact, one such incident had taken place just a few weeks ago at the particular mall we frequent.

This post has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the way I must have looked to the personnel monitoring the security screens at a Checkers when my beaten up cellphone notified me of an email. My daughter who was standing next to me thought her father had gone bonkers. I was trying very hard not to jump up and down. I was also beaming at every stranger who walked past. I was, to put it mildly, overwhelmed by a most unexpected news.

The official announcement has just been released, so I am posting it here. I have been warned that maybe I am blowing my own horn… sometimes a little too loudly. I want to think of it as sharing some good news. Here it is. Books LIVE has the same announcement up.

I’ve been meaning to share thoughts on many things – the elections in South Africa, the unsubtle threats of China to take over the water and other resources of other countries, the change of seasons in my part of the world, and some other random matters. But as often happens, the real world crashes down on my intentions.

Now a few bits of news I really have to share.

In the past few weeks I received copies of publications where my poetry appeared. It is always good when a poem finds a home somewhere I myself may never visit. Well, who knows, really? Maybe one day someone will sponsor me to fly all the way to…

LEBANON. Rusted Radishes, published by … (drum roll) … the American University of Beirut. The excellent editors liked my poem “If Palestine were a Treasured Painting.” It is a beautiful publication full of interesting graphics and bold writing.

The poem is part of my unpublished manuscript, Sky for Silent Wings, which is still hoping for a publisher.

The next country my work found a home is… FRANCE via the anthology of contemporary South African poetry edited by Denis Hirson. It’s a handsome book – tall and elegant. Everything about it just makes me wish I could read and write in French! The three poems included are “Chameleon Caress,” (which originally appeared in my book Alien to Any Skin) “People Who Live with Lions” and “That Feather Could be Yours Someday.” I was a late addition to the anthology, and I’m thankful to Robert Berold for introducing my poetry to Denis Hirson.